Outside, the guests, panic-stricken, scattered in every direction and fled in a pitiable state of terror; and such a tumult as they made with their running and sobbing and shrieking and shouting that soon all the village came flocking from their houses to see what had happened, and they thronged the street and shouldered and jostled one another in excitement and fright; and then Father Adolf appeared, and they fell apart in two walls like the cloven Red Sea, and presently down this lane the astrologer came striding and mumbling, and where he passed the lanes surged back in packed masses, and fell silent with awe, and their eyes stared and their breasts heaved, and several women fainted; and when he was gone by the crowd swarmed together and followed him at a distance, talking excitedly and asking questions and finding out the facts.
Finding out the facts and passing them on to others, with improvements--improvements which soon enlarged the bowl of wine to a barrel, and made the one bottle hold it all and yet remain empty to the last.
When the astrologer reached the market-square he went straight to a juggler, fantastically dressed, who was keeping three brass balls in the air, and took them from him and faced around upon the approaching crowd and said: "This poor clown is ignorant of his art.Come forward and see an expert perform."So saying, he tossed the balls up one after another and set them whirling in a slender bright oval in the air, and added another, then another and another, and soon--no one seeing whence he got them--adding, adding, adding, the oval lengthening all the time, his hands moving so swiftly that they were just a web or a blur and not distinguishable as hands; and such as counted said there were now a hundred balls in the air.The spinning great oval reached up twenty feet in the air and was a shining and glinting and wonderful sight.Then he folded his arms and told the balls to go on spinning without his help--and they did it.After a couple of minutes he said, "There, that will do," and the oval broke and came crashing down, and the balls scattered abroad and rolled every whither.And wherever one of them came the people fell back in dread, and no one would touch it.It made him laugh, and he scoffed at the people and called them cowards and old women.Then he turned and saw the tight-rope, and said foolish people were daily wasting their money to see a clumsy and ignorant varlet degrade that beautiful art; now they should see the work of a master.With that he made a spring into the air and lit firm on his feet on the rope.Then he hopped the whole length of it back and forth on one foot, with his hands clasped over his eyes; and next he began to throw somersaults, both backward and forward, and threw twenty-seven.
The people murmured, for the astrologer was old, and always before had been halting of movement and at times even lame, but he was nimble enough now and went on with his antics in the liveliest manner.Finally he sprang lightly down and walked away, and passed up the road and around the corner and disappeared.Then that great, pale, silent, solid crowd drew a deep breath and looked into one another's faces as if they said:
"Was it real? Did you see it, or was it only I--and was I dreaming?"Then they broke into a low murmur of talking, and fell apart in couples, and moved toward their homes, still talking in that awed way, with faces close together and laying a hand on an arm and making other such gestures as people make when they have been deeply impressed by something.
We boys followed behind our fathers, and listened, catching all we could of what they said; and when they sat down in our house and continued their talk they still had us for company.They were in a sad mood, for it was certain, they said, that disaster for the village must follow this awful visitation of witches and devils.Then my father remembered that Father Adolf had been struck dumb at the moment of his denunciation.
"They have not ventured to lay their hands upon an anointed servant of God before," he said; "and how they could have dared it this time Icannot make out, for he wore his crucifix.Isn't it so?""Yes," said the others, "we saw it."
"It is serious, friends, it is very serious.Always before, we had a protection.It has failed."The others shook, as with a sort of chill, and muttered those words over--"It has failed." "God has forsaken us.""It is true," said Seppi Wohlmeyer's father; "there is nowhere to look for help.""The people will realize this," said Nikolaus's father, the judge, "and despair will take away their courage and their energies.We have indeed fallen upon evil times."He sighed, and Wohlmeyer said, in a troubled voice: "The report of it all will go about the country, and our village will be shunned as being under the displeasure of God.The Golden Stag will know hard times.""True, neighbor," said my father; "all of us will suffer--all in repute, many in estate.And, good God!--""What is it?"
"That can come--to finish us!"
"Name it--um Gottes Willen!"
"The Interdict!"
It smote like a thunderclap, and they were like to swoon with the terror of it.Then the dread of this calamity roused their energies, and they stopped brooding and began to consider ways to avert it.They discussed this, that, and the other way, and talked till the afternoon was far spent, then confessed that at present they could arrive at no decision.
So they parted sorrowfully, with oppressed hearts which were filled with bodings.
While they were saying their parting words I slipped out and set my course for Marget's house to see what was happening there.I met many people, but none of them greeted me.It ought to have been surprising, but it was not, for they were so distraught with fear and dread that they were not in their right minds, I think; they were white and haggard, and walked like persons in a dream, their eyes open but seeing nothing, their lips moving but uttering nothing, and worriedly clasping and unclasping their hands without knowing it.